


Things that Go Bump in the Night

by kisahawklin



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, I mean... I don't know what the hell this is really, M/M, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 08:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17321876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: Something's haunting Jensen's place. Jared helps.





	Things that Go Bump in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kimenem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimenem/gifts).



> For kimenem, whose prompts included general h/c, protective!Jared, and someone feeling ill but not taking it seriously... I apologize, this is just... what came to mind? I hope you enjoy it!

It's stupid really. 

Jensen glances over his shoulder again. Nothing's there. Of course there's nothing there, he knows better. Still, he can't shake this feeling, and it's giving him a headache.

He's chopping peppers when hears it again, just a little clicking noise from the living room. 

"What is wrong with you?" he asks the open air. "You do this shit for a living, just go check it out, Jensen."

He keeps his knife, going into the living room and looking around carefully. Nothing looks out of place, except maybe him in pajamas wielding a knife. Then he hears the sound in the kitchen, soft, like maybe it's trying to draw him in. 

He swallows hard, trying to put on Dean's bravado, but it's hard in an outfit Dean wouldn't be caught dead in. "Come on, Jensen, are you a man or are you a mouse?"

He keeps his knife raised, but when he gets to the kitchen, it's empty. Of course it's empty, he lives alone, what the hell is wrong with him? He puts down the knife and gives up on breakfast. He'll get something from craft.

~~~

One shower and two advil later, he's feeling better. There's still some niggling doubt about the apartment, but he's always had an active imagination and every once in a great while, some of the effects stick with him.

As soon as he's in the car, Jared's going a mile a minute about some podcast and Jensen just sinks into it and lets everything slip away.

~~~

Cooking is for the birds.

Jensen doesn't mind it when there are people around. He likes cooking with friends, knocking around the kitchen, shooting the shit. But this whole chopping vegetables and dirtying ten pots and pans just to eat something moderately healthy when it's just him in his kitchen is too much work.

Plus, the weird sounds always seem to happen when he's in the kitchen. This time, when he whirls around, knife in hand, he gets dizzy, and he gives it up for a lost cause, turning off the stove and calling for Indian food.

~~~

_Jensen_

What the fuck? Jensen whirls around. "Jay?"

Jensen's still in jeans and a flannel shirt, so he puts his Dean face on, grabs a knife, and clears the whole apartment. He debates salting the windows and doors, but if it _is_ something supernatural, the damn thing is already inside the house. He'd be locking it in with him.

What the fuck is even wrong with him? This isn't the show; the supernatural doesn't exist. 

_Click_

_Click click click_

_Clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick_

He orders a cab and calls Jared.

 _"Mmph,"_ Jared says, which Jensen knows means he got home, probably ate a whole pizza, and flopped into bed. _"What's going on?"_

"I'm gonna crash on your couch," Jensen says. Thank god Jared doesn't question anything.

_"'kay. You got a key?"_

"Yup, you go back to sleep."

_"'kay. Night, Jen."_

"Night, Jay."

~~~

It's not like Jensen didn't know he'd be teased and likely pranked for sleeping on Jared's couch. He just thought he'd wake up before it got too bad. He's a light sleeper when he's not in his own bed.

Waking up to two hundred pounds of Padalecki on his chest makes him rethink the wisdom of his choices. _Please don't fart on me._

"What's going on? Fangirls find your place?"

Shit, Jensen hadn't even considered that – he can't honestly say if it'd be worse to have a fangirl invasion or a ghost. "Nah, just needed to get out."

Something in his voice must tip Jared off, though, because he gets up and offers a hand to Jensen to help him sit up. "Everything okay?"

The last thing he wants to do is talk to Jared about this. He sounds crazy. At least his headache is gone. He sighs. "I don't know. My apartment…" Is he really going to say this? To Jared? He'll never hear the end of it. 

"What about it?" Jared asks. "Sick of it already? It's pretty sweet."

Jensen just shakes his head. "I just…" He runs his fingers through his hair, praying for Clif to arrive and interrupt him. "There's… I don't know. Weird noises."

Jared's laugh and grin are surprisingly cathartic and Jensen laughs too. "I know, it's stupid. It just freaked me out last night."

Jay sobers and that also makes Jensen feel a little better. "Okay," he says. "What kind of noises?"

It sounds so stupid now; how can he possible tell Jared about the clicking noises and the headaches and the dizziness? And honestly, that stuff, he can probably explain away, but the whispery _Jensen_ … That scared the fuck out of him.

He waves a hand, dismissing the question. "You know, probably just freaked out from the make-up yesterday. Sometimes those guys knock it out of the park."

"Yeah," Jared says, though he doesn't look convinced. "Why don't I come over tonight? Burgers and beer or something?"

Jensen grins. He'd accept that offer any time, but Jared doing it to make him feel secure… It's always nice when Jay turns the tables on him a little bit and tries to take care of him.

~~~

Jensen makes burgers out of buffalo. It's leaner, so healthier, and honestly, he likes the flavor. It's not Jared's favorite, but he never turns down someone else's cooking.

Jensen's worry had picked up as they approached the door and had gotten worse as the night went on. Jared stood around in the kitchen while Jensen cooked, making small talk, but something felt like it was sitting on Jensen's shoulders, almost oppressive.

The clicking noises start small, something that could be explained away by the fridge or Jensen's kitchen prep, but after the fourth or fifth one, Jensen says, "You can't hear that?"

Jared looks up, the earnest look on his face that makes him look like Sam. "Hear what?"

Of course now there isn't a sound – the quiet is almost overbearing. Jensen rolls his eyes at himself. "It's a clicking sort of noise. Like… two wooden objects hitting each other."

The silence is embarrassing, even with Jared making his crazy listening face. "Never mind," Jensen says, turning back to the stove, putting the burgers on. He pulls a couple of fresh beers out of the fridge. "I swear I feel like I'm going crazy." 

When he pops two more advil, Jared's expression switches to concern. "That's like, the third time I've seen you take ibuprofen today."

"Yeah," Jensen says, "can't shake this headache."

"Maybe you need some time off," Jared says, and that scares the crap out of Jensen; they don't say that, ever – not even as a joke. Jared never said that even when Jensen was going crazy while he was directing.

"Don't say that," Jensen says, trying to pass it off as a joke, not sound desperate.

Whatever he sounded like, Jared seems to agree, and jokes about another convention in Hawaii, and things are back to normal. 

Well, almost normal. He doesn't notice the clicking while Jared's there talking non-stop, but he can't shake the heaviness that's sitting on him, like something is watching him. Jared doesn't seem to notice, though, and Jensen just keeps things light, trying to let the unending flow of Jared's conversation wash over him. 

After a couple of hours, Jared gives up the ghost. "Sorry, man, I'm wiped. Can I have a couple advil though? I think your headache is catching."

"Yeah, of course," Jensen says, throwing him the bottle. Jared takes two and heads home, leaving Jensen alone in his apartment again, with irrational dread growing in the back of his mind. He cleans up the kitchen, clanging things around so he can't hear any clicking noises, but it just makes his headache worse. And if he turns too fast, he catches a glimpse of something in his peripheral vision. He tries to catch whatever it is, but it's never there when he whirls around, pan or knife in hand.

He eventually falls asleep, headache following him into his dreams.

~~~

_Jensen_

Jensen sits bolt upright in bed, his heart going a million miles and hour. He is absolutely losing it. He's dizzy too, now, probably because he sat up so fast. 

_Jensen_

Okay, not a dream then. Jensen feels like an extra on his own show; he's always been impressed with the actors that can really make it feel like they're terrified. He's never been that kind of scared in his life before. Now, he gets it.

_Jeeeeeeeeeensen_

Oh, fuck, what the hell is going on. He's caught; if he gets up, what's the best that could happen? There's nothing in the house and he feels like he's going crazy. He can't go to Jared's again, Jared's going to think he's gone off the deep end. Jim's not filming this week, and there's no way he's showing up at Misha's place. Really, Jared's his only option, the only one he really trusts not to turn him in to the loony bin. But he can't.

He lies back down, counting backwards from ten, out loud. If nothing else, it's good to hear a real voice in the darkness, even if it's his own.

He's just about to fall asleep when he feels the oppressive weight again, something watching him. He keeps his eyes closed because if he opens them and something is there, he's absolutely going to go screaming into the night.

_Jensen_

Jensen swallows hard and starts counting out loud again, but the voice doesn't seem to like that, and is louder the next time.

_**Jensen** _

"Shut up shut up shut up!" He feels like he's going to throw up.

_**Wake up!** _

Jensen's eyes fly open and he sees something standing at the end of the bed – no, some _one_ , and holy shit, who the fuck is in his apartment?

He doesn't stop to look, or get chopped to death, he just grabs his phone off the nightstand and his jeans off the floor and runs for the door. 

He keeps running for a while, heading east because that's the way to Jared's place, though it'd take him a solid half an hour of running to get there. When the fear fades a little, he slows to a walk and takes out his phone to call a cab.

Coming up with excuses for why he's showing up on Jared's doorstep at three am takes up most of the trip, but when he lets himself in, they all fall away. He didn't call Jared this time because he didn't want to wake him, but there's no way Jensen can just crash on the couch. He stares at it for a while, weighing the heavy stone in his stomach against the awkward idea of waking Jay up.

Eventually the achey tiredness overcomes the fear that's still eating at him, and he slips his shoes off before heading down the hall to Jared's room. 

"Jared," Jensen says, just over a whisper because it is the middle of the night. Jared stirs but doesn't wake, so Jensen turns it up half a notch. " _Jared_." 

"Jen?" Jared's voice is sleep-soft and it takes away some small bit of heaviness that's taken root in Jensen's chest.

"Yeah," Jensen says. "Sorry, there was –"

Jared shifts from sleepy to wide-awake in a heartbeat, sitting up and putting a hand on Jensen's arm. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Jensen nods. "Yeah, I mean…" Shit, he ran away from a… ghost. Or demon. Or something. "There was something… someone… standing at the foot of my bed. They were calling my name."

"Dude, you sound freaked out," Jared says, shifting a little so he can bring Jensen in for a hug. "What did you do?"

"Got the fuck out of there, what do you think? Why do you think I'm here?"

Jared chuckles a little at that. "Yeah, man, okay, I hear you. Just calm down." 

Jensen is calm, comparatively, and he'd take the time to be annoyed except he's sitting on Jay's bed at 3am, still shaking and feeling like he might throw up. He takes a deep breath. "Yeah, sorry. It was freaky, Jay, you have no idea."

"I can only imagine," Jared says, squeezing Jensen again and slapping him on the back. "Climb in, I'll get you some water."

It's not that Jensen doesn't want to climb into Jared's bed – as a matter of fact he was angling for exactly that – but it's a little weird now that he's here. He's still feeling vulnerable, though, so he shucks his jeans and climbs under the covers, curling up as tightly as he can. It helps with the nausea a little.

"Hey," Jared says when he gets back with water. He pulls on Jensen's shoulder but Jensen stays curled up. The fear and adrenaline are draining and embarrassment is coming up pretty fast, but not so much that he can make himself get out of Jared's bed. "It's okay," Jared says, curling around Jensen to give him the world's most awkward hug.

It's also the most comforting because like this, Jared can practically envelop him, and Jensen hasn't wanted to be cuddled like this since he was a kid, but something about it allows him to let go a little, sleepiness coming up to take him over.

~~~

When Jensen wakes, he's warm and disoriented, wondering why it smells like Jared in his bed.

Then he remembers he's not in his bed, and pulls the covers over his head in utter embarrassment.

"Hey sleepyhead," Jared says, yanking the covers off his face. He's in his running gear and absolutely sopping wet with sweat. "How you feeling?"

"Like an idiot," Jensen says, pulling the covers back up. 

"Nah," Jared says. "I'll stay in your guest room tonight, we'll see what's going on."

In the light of day, it feels like a perfect plan. There's still a feeling of heaviness sitting on him, though, and that makes it feel dangerous, or maybe a little stupid. 

"I'm going to shower," Jared says, tossing a bottle of advil to Jensen. "Drink some water. You're probably dehydrated."

Jensen gets up and does exactly what Jared says because despite Jensen being the mother hen, it's Jared that generally has the best sense about what's going on when one of them doesn't feel 100%.

Once Jared's out of the shower, Jensen does a quick rinse – he only has fifteen minutes before Clif'll be there and there's not enough time for anything else. He ran out without a shirt last night, so he ends up wearing one of Jared's, which is annoying because everyone can tell when he's wearing Jared's clothes. 

Nobody says anything, thankfully, though Clif gives him a raised eyebrow. He picks them up at each other's places all the time, so that stopped getting raised eyebrows years ago. Wearing Jay's clothes, though. Damn it.

Misha takes one look at Jensen and laughs. "Laundry day?" he asks. Jensen doesn't dignify that with an answer.

Still, his headache seems to dissipate a little as they work, and he's able to laugh it off when Jared teases him about his place being haunted.

"What?" Misha says, suddenly all concern. "You're being haunted?"

Jensen shrugs it off. "I don't know. My apartment's been… weird."

"Oh shit," Misha says, getting out his phone and texting. "You've had a headache for like, a week, right?"

Jensen looks at Jared – he's more likely to remember than Jensen is. "Yeah," Jared says. "Since last Thursday."

Misha's phone buzzes and he reads the text, and immediately goes off searching something else. "What else? You're hearing things? Seeing things?"

This is definitely making Jensen feel like a jackass, so he's planning to blow off the question, but Jared seems to have tapped into Misha's concern and he answers honestly. "Yeah. Saw something bad enough to make him leave the apartment last night."

"Dizziness?" Misha asks. "Trouble breathing?"

Misha's question takes him off guard, but it's Jared's wrinkled up forehead that makes him answer honestly. "A little. Feels like something's sitting on my chest."

Misha scrolls down the page of whatever he's reading and says, "I think we need to get you to a hospital."

 _Oh, shit_ , they're going to try to commit him, what the hell – 

"Why?" Jared asks, coming around behind Misha to read whatever's on his phone. The way his face opens up is almost comical until he says, "Holy shit, Jensen, it's carbon monoxide!"

~~~

The on-set medic told him his oxygen something or other was fifty-something percent, which, to Jensen, sounded pretty high. Apparently it wasn't, though, because Jensen got a free ride to the hospital and Jared rode along with him.

Jared is still sitting next to his bed, actually, and Jensen is feeling about as foolish as humanly possible, but Jared doesn't know or care, he just keeps him company, sometimes babbling to fill up the space, sometimes letting the silence be comfortable. 

"You don't have to stay," Jensen says. They don't even think they're going to keep him overnight.

Jared rolls his eyes without even looking up from his phone. "I called your landlord, by the way," he says, and Jensen can't help but crack a smile; he forgets, sometimes, how good Jared is at taking care of people. "It's something to do with your stove. It'll take a couple days to fix."

"Thanks," Jensen says. He hesitates for a moment, then decides to go oblique. "Don't suppose you booked me a hotel."

Jared rolls his eyes again, though at least this time he has the good grace to look at Jensen. 

Jensen's smile is probably lighting up the whole hospital at this point, but when Jared says, "Very funny – you're staying at my place," Jensen's grin gets out of control. It's been a miserable week, but waking up in Jared's bed this morning was something of a highlight. 

"And no more making yourself deathly ill just to con your way into my bed," Jared says, leaning over and kissing the top of Jensen's head. 

"Wouldn't dream of it," Jensen says, grabbing Jared's sleeve and bringing him back for another kiss.

~~~

**Author's Note:**

> So demon possession really being carbon monoxide poisoning is a thing. I don't have any idea why, when offered a 'one person is sick and the other gives comfort' sort of option that's what came to mind, but it is.


End file.
